Research and Data

Screen Ireland Research and Data

Screen Industry Statistics

In 2016 the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Communications and the Department of Enterprise commissioned a report to measure the value of the audiovusual sector. SPI/Olsberg won the tender. The report was published in 2018 using 2016 baseline data.

What is the Value of the Audiovisual sector in Ireland?

The audiovisual sector has a Gross Value Added €1,049.9 million. This included Film, TV and Animation, Commercials, Video games and Radio.

The Film, TV and Animation sector on their own is worth €692 million. This includes production and distribution/exploitation.

How many individuals are currently working in the Irish film, television and animation industries?

SPI/Olsberg concluded that there were 16,930 jobs in the whole of the audiovisual sector. This included Film, TV and Animation, Commercials, Video games and Radio.

The Film, TV and Animation sector comprises 11,960 jobs by way of direct, indirect and induced employment across the economy. Direct employment on the Film, TV and Animation sector is 7,070. The direct employment figures on production for Film, TV and Animation is 4,480.

For more information you can download the full report and abridged statistics:

What is the annual spend in the Irish economy on employment and goods and services from the Irish film, and screen industries?

In 2017, Irish films, television and animation productions produced in Ireland had combined budgets of over €590 million and spent over €292 million on local employment and local good and services. This is a direct impact and it will also give rise to an indirect and induced economic impact in the hands of recipients.

Annual spend is different to Gross Value Added as it does not seek to measure productivity – it is a simple measure of spend in the economy.

This 2017 figure represents an annual increase of 10% on 2016 spend and an increase of 192% since 2007.

There has been constant growth in production activity throughout the industry since 2007, except for a dip in 2015, which represented the changeover to a new updated system of section 481.

Screen Ireland Statistics

How much funding is allocated to Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland?

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland differentiates between capital and current funding. Capital funding is spent in film, TV and animation projects and current funding is allocates to overheads

In 2019 the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaelteacht allocated €16.2 million in Capital funding to Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland. This was increased from €14.2 million in 2018.

Last year for the first time ever, the Irish Government made a long-term commitment to film culture with a funding allocation of €200 million between 2018 and 2027. With this strong Government comittment, together with a growing global demand for content, the film and screen industry is poised to continue to increase and expand the significant economic and social contribution it makes to Irish society.

How Many projects did Screen Ireland fund in 2018?

In 2018, Screen Ireland invested *€13.7 million across 50 projects, including 21 feature films, generating approximately €40 million return to the Irish exchequer, in terms of spend on local jobs and services. Countries we co-produced with included UK, Australia, Canada, Lithuania and Netherlands.

For more information on the Screen Ireland funding awards – visit our funding awards announcements. Please note these awards are published by commitment in a specific year and not spend in the year which is reflected in the annual accounts.

Gender Statistics

In 2015 Screen Ireland announced our Six Point Plan to encourage more women to apply for funding. We also incentivised producers to work with female writers and directors by announcing enhanced funding measures for female talent and we also introduced a female driven development/production scheme called POV.

The following statistics indicate that an improvement is being seen in term of women applying for funding and a significant change can also be seen across Screen Ireland funding decisions:

Production funding decisions with female directors increased from 20% in 2017 to 36% in 2018,

Production funding decisions with writers increased from 20% in 2017 to 45% in 2018.

Funding applications with female talent attached have increased significantly, with applications received with female directors attached up from 15% in 2017 to 31% in 2018.

You can download detailed breakdown of our gender funding statistics across all of our funding applications here:

Irish Film at the Box Office

Irish audiences have engaged with Irish films at the Cinema, Video On Demand (VOD), Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) and on Irish television channels. While the measure of box office is exacting it does not often reflect how a project has done internationally, its sales in the international marketplace or its life on international platforms such as Netflix.

Major recent success at the Irish Box office include Black ’47, Maze, Room, Brooklyn, The Lobster and Sing Street to name a few. The Irish Box office for Irish Films is modest and has constraints in terms of marketing spend, cinema screen access and the economy of competing against blockbuster movies. Irish audiences have a firm appetite for comedy and documentary has preformed very well in recent year.

Irish audiences love going to the cinema and are amongst the highest cinemas goers in Europe with €16.7 million admissions reported in 2017. The main distributors of Irish Film are Wildcard, Element and Eclipse. In 2018 there were a number of new players coming into the market.